SHAKER SACRED FOLK SONGS Rare 1958 Private Label Shaker Village PITTSFIELD MASS

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SHAKER SACRED FOLK SONGS RARE 1958 Private Label Shaker Village PITTSFIELD MASS

14 SHAKER FOLK SONGS
Shaker Village Work Group
Mount Lebanon, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
1958 / Shaker Village TV-25548
(Private Label Pressing)
10" 33rpm Vinyl Record Album
in original appropriately plain paper sleeve.

Rather rare record of songs Shakers sang during their services, released in 1958 and featuring a 13-minute interview with Brother Ricardo Beldon, the last surviving male member of the Enfield, Connecticut community.

Brother Beldon answers questions about his life as a Shaker, their beliefs, the uses of Shaker music in services, and the distinctive Shaker music notation. He also sings a brief snippet of a song.

The interview was conducted circa 1955, several years before he died.

The other side of the record features fourteen Shaker songs performed by a group of teenagers enrolled at the "work education summer project" conducted at Shaker Village in the Berkshires, designed to preserve Shaker traditions when it became apparent they were a dying sect.

Today, I believe there is one Shaker left in the United States.

This record does not appear on the market frequently.
Currently, there is one copy listed on Amazon, priced at $200.
Only seven library holdings are recorded in WorldCat.

Condition: Record is attractive with clean labels and a good deal of original gloss retained, some scratches. It is in played condition. Play tested, no skips.

A worthy addition to even the most advanced collection of American religious or folk music.

More about Shakers

The Shakers are one of the most intriguing religious movements in American history, and considered among the most successful utopian societies ever to have flourished in this country. A religious order whose members believe in pacifism, celibacy, and communal living, Shaker religious expression took the form of singing and ecstatic dance, which is why they were called the “Shaking Quakers,” or “Shakers.”

Shakers came to America from Manchester, England, in 1774, when Ann Lee led eight Shaker converts here seeking freedom to live, work, and worship.

The Shakers have made important contributions to American culture in their art, architecture, craftsmanship, music, government, agriculture, and commerce. They are renowned today for their plain architecture and furniture.

All photographs are of actual item.

Full refunds cheerfully given for any item that I have misdescribed.